"2014 Season:
Get Down and Thirty"Celebrating Chester
Eitze's 30th Year at the Bastrop Opera HousePlays,
Musical Theatre, Dinner Theatre, Dance, Opera, Country, Film, & Comedy
for Audiences of All Ages.Bastrop's
award-winning theatre! Home of the Spring Street Players and the
Colorado River RepertoryThe HARMS MARIONETTES of Austin perform
the classicCINDERELLAmasterfully presented by Donald Harms
who will share ademonstration following the performance
each evening.

December 19 &
20, Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m.

The performance is
approximately 45 minutes long.Adults are given
the opportunity to make a monetary donation &Children will be
admitted upon receipt of a non-perishable food item to be donated to the
Bastrop County Emergency Food Pantry on December 22, 2014.

The puppeteer writes,
"Kathy Piper's Cinderella has always struck me as one of the best puppet
plays written in America in the 20th century. It was a real privilege when
Kathy allowed me to use her script. The script incorporates a clever
second plot in which the mother steals the magic flower from the Godfather.
(I personally returned to the older tradition of telling the story with
a Godfather instead of a Godmother. I was doing the voices myself.)"

The transformations,
so essential in this story, happen in full view of the audience.

Showman at age 11(This brief bio
is from an article by Cheryl Berzanskis which appeared in The Pampa News).Don Harms became
enchanted with marionettes at age nine when he first saw them. The Peoria,
Illinois, native described his early years in the midwest as being conducive
to the development of his craft. The basement and attic of his home provided
space to spread out, his parents were encouraging, and after school, the
time was his. "Marionettes became more consuming than school," he recalled.

After studying painting
and literature at Bradley University, plus a year in Paris at the Sorbonne,
the puppeteer pursued graduate studies in comparative literature at the
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. During those graduate years he began
to direct campus live theater productions. He continued to direct after
taking an assignment teaching French at the University of Michigan at Flint.

"During the '60's,
it was impossible to resist theater," he said. He even gave up what he
described as the best regular job he personally had ever had - teaching
French in college - to pursue his love of theater.

The late 1960's found
him in Austin. "I fell in love with Texas," he said, describing Austin
as still undiscovered then. "It was magical, a mixture of rural and urban
life." He loved the cultural potential and freshness of Texas. The love
of live theater kept Harms involved in the local theater community through
the early 1970's. Between productions he studied painting and sculpture.

His earlier passion
for marionette theater came to the forefront of his life again after Harms
came into a small inheritance which for a decade freed him from money worries.
"In the seventies," he said, "I became acquainted with the various methods
of puppet construction around the world; I remembered what I had learned
as a youngster, and experimented with new ways to construct puppets. Aesthetically
I was influenced by African masks. I studied life drawing and painting.
My plan was to return to performing, but I was in no hurry. I enjoyed studying.
I was in my 40's. My life had been split into different phases - studying
literature, teaching, directing plays, acting, carpentry, painting and
sculpture. I saw in marionette theater the chance to bring all the pieces
together while still pursuing each interest."

"The area in which
I did not feel qualified was play writing. So, I went to visit the playwright
whose scripts I admire most among my colleagues, Kathy Piper, in Ohio.
Kathy lent me the script of Aladdin. With that, I was ready to put the
pieces together and perform.

Harms continued,
"The first shows were successful, but I wasn't known. I was already in
my early fifties. But the Texas Commission on the Arts put me on their
touring roster and I began to tour Texas." He's still doing it.

There's an art to
looking at marionette theater. The members of the audience bond into a
pleasant state of mind by collectively focusing on the puppets. The faces
of the puppets are similar to masks. The movements of their wooden bodies
are pulled by the force of gravity while also being easily lifted above
the force of gravity by the strings. Children quickly identify with the
spontaneity of the puppets. Adults who are experienced at watching puppets
often come to the conclusion that these puppet actors outdo their human
counterparts in expressing the movements and the moments of tenderness,
comic aggression, sadness and above all happiness.

"Raise the Roof Fundraiser"

When
you visit the Bastrop Opera House, you are visiting a piece of Bastrop
and Texas history. Bastrop merchants P. Otto Elzner and S.D. Green
agreed to build the Opera House in 1889 at a reported cost of $15,000.
Now 124 year later, more than three times that amount is needed just to
repair the roof to preserve this unique piece of history.

The historic Bastrop Opera House
has launched an emergency capital campaign to repair the roof. We have
a ways to go, but we will get there with your help. Thank you to
all who of you who donated, entertained, volunteered, participated, appreciated,
and joined us. Contributors
and Donors Thank You List.

Please keep those donations pouring in,
so we can stop the rain from pouring in.

The Bastrop Opera
House is the heart of live theater in Bastrop and needs to be preserved.
The
funding of a new roof is crucial. After the incredible heat of last
summer, the rain of this new year have pointed out more leaks in the over-twenty-year-old
tin roof. With contraction and expansion the nails have popped out
and where there had been tar and sealant along the down spout alleys, cracks
have occurred. Rather than merely patching repeatedly what is there,
a complete overhaul needs to be initiated. Therefore, several fundraising
occured including special music programs, like the Classic Country Music
Shows, where the proceeds will be placed in our building fund for a preservation
project of this nature.

You may send a donations
for the "roof restoration project" to the Bastrop Opera House, P.O. Box
691, Bastrop, Texas 78602. You may also make an online donation of
any amount on the Bastrop Opera House site at http://bastropoperahouse.com/sponsorship.htm,
or you may donate by clicking this button, and entering how much you'd
like to donate.Donations so far are $11,645 toward the $50,000 goal. THANK YOU!

Volunteers make the Opera House function.
We could not run without the help and support of our volunteers--in fact,
they are crucial to making the Bastrop Opera House a success. Thousands
of volunteer hours go into the Opera House shows. You can help even
if you only have one hour to give. Volunteers post their interests
and skills, and directors and organizers post their needs. Are you
interested in becoming part of the energetic Bastrop Opera House volunteer
team?Join
the Bastrop Opera House Volunteers.

Please mail or email any questions or commentsabout the Bastrop
Opera House to:

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